Look out Discreet. Google has it’s giant single eye, rimmed in fire, fixed squarely on the 3d market with Google Sketchup. Released a few months ago, and no 3dMax by any standard, there’s still plenty of low-level 3d packages out there they may take a face-plant because of Google’s free software giveaway. Would be cool if they integrate it with Google Earth to drop your house into the Google World, but I don’t think that’s their main goal here. Here’s what you get:

  • Click on a shape and push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.  
  • Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
  • Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
  • Select from thousands of pre-drawn components to save time drawing.

Not much more than a toy at this point, but with their endless bucket of cash you can bet it will become much more over time. If I had any form of small software company at this point,  I’d be keeping an eye on the skies for 2 black helicopter’s now. One with a Microsoft Logo, the other with Google Eyes.